Goaltending has been an issue for the Habs this season and on Wednesday, the team has made a move to try to address it. The team announced that goalie coach Eric Raymond has been let go. Laval goalie coach Marco Marciano will fill the role for the rest of the season.
After two straight losses where they deserved a better fate, the Habs were back in action on Tuesday as they hosted Vegas. They couldn’t hold the lead again but it didn’t matter as Jake Evans scored on a two-on-one in overtime to give Montreal the 4-3 victory.
While the schedule gets lighter for the Habs in terms of no back-to-backs for a while, they’re in the middle of facing some tough opponents. And while they deserved a better fate than they got, it wasn’t a particularly successful week with just one win in three games.
The Habs had the lead for most of Saturday night’s game in Boston. However, a disastrous 12-second stretch proved to be the difference with the Bruins scoring twice to secure them the 4-3 victory.
Games 46-50 returned seven out of ten possible points for the Habs, who have played above a .600 point production for the last 30 games. More impressive is that they’ve done so despite some goaltending that appears to be heading back in the wrong direction.
A slow start proved to be problematic for the Habs on Thursday. They played a great second half of the game but couldn’t get away with spotting Buffalo a three-goal lead. In the end, the Sabres won 4-2.
A pair of rookies made their NHL debuts in the second quarter of the season for the Habs. Both received decent reviews from our writers, getting solid grades for their efforts. Those are mixed in with the rest of Montreal’s goalies and defencemen.
The Habs haven’t had much success against Minnesota in recent years. While they controlled Tuesday’s game, they were tied in the final minute until Cole Caufield one-timed one home to give Montreal a big 4-3 victory.
There’s an $8.7 million question the Habs have likely been pondering for a while. When Patrik Laine returns from his core muscle injury, what are they going to do with him? With him skating and nearing a return, that question is about to be answered.
It would be fair to say that the Habs had their struggles this past week. On the other hand, they still managed to come out of their games with five of a possible eight points, good enough to keep them in the top three in the increasingly tight Atlantic Division.